Magruder Elementary name stays
Good morning! York School board votes to keep Magruder Elementary School's name...local pilot survives crash landing...And our series continues on the lack of affordable housing in our area.
York County’s school board voted Monday to keep Magruder Elementary School’s name.
Board members voted 3-1 at their regular board meeting not to change the name to Bruton Elementary. Only one person voted to rename the school: Mark J. Shafer, in whose first district the school is located.
The school system conducted a poll on the matter last summer, and 58% of York residents who voted were opposed to changing the name.
School Chair Kimberly S. Goodwin, Vice Chair James E. Richardson and District 2 representative Zoran Pajevic voted against changing the name, without any explanation. District 5 Representative Lynda J. Fairman was not present.
Shafer said when the issue of the school name resurfaced six years ago, he believed the school had been named after a local black community rather than the Confederate General who set fire to Hampton.
“Since then, there have been things come up…articles from 1951” in the Daily Press saying the school had been named for Confederate General John Magruder, he said.
‘We don’t name schools for people in York County,” Shafer said.
About a third of the people who spoke during the public comment period spoke about Magruder and all of them favored changing the school’s name to Bruton Elementary.
Resident opposition makes affordable housing harder to find in Historic Triangle
Editor’s note: This is the second installment in our three-part series on the lack of affordable housing in our area
Want to know the main reason affordable housing is so hard to find in our area? Look in the mirror.
Former James City County Planning Director Bill Brown called it “The drawbridge syndrome” when he worked in the county 50 years ago: Local residents want to maintain the rural character and green spaces that attracted them here in the first place.
Since then, things have changed little.
In our last installment, we sketched out the magnitude of the housing affordability crisis in the Historic Triangle: Task forces set up in James City County and the city of Williamsburg found a quarter of county residents and a third of city residents are spending too much on housing, more than a third of their income.
A survey of York County residents found 70% are concerned about housing affordability.
“Affordable housing is something much needed in (our) area,” said Grove community activist Sheree Beaufort. “When is James City County going to do anything about affordable housing?”
Beaufort was a rare bird at a county board of supervisors meeting last summer -- someone lobbying for affordability. At most public hearings, elected officials tend to hear from those vocally opposed to taking the steps required to build affordable housing.
As a result, most zoning decisions in James City and York counties historically favored family homes on large lots, using up the available land and making it hard for builders to put up multifamily housing and condominiums that would be more affordable.
At the heart of rising home prices is a supply and demand imbalance, we were told by Ryan Price, chief economist of the Virginia Association of Realtors.
“We have a lot more demand than we have availability,” Price said.
Price said the solution is for localities to streamline their zoning process and minimize unpredictability so that builders are interested in investing there.
“Community opposition does play a big role in what is ultimately built” in the Historic Triangle, Price explained “Even before there’s a proposal you can have community opposition…. that could limit the future supply of housing in the area.”
Sarah Stafford, CSX professor of economics and public policy at William & Mary, told us the people who tend to show up at public hearings on housing and zoning are those with a vested interest in opposing lower income housing solutions.
“You’re never going to hear from the people for whom that is a positive thing,” said Stafford, whose data was used by the Williamsburg housing task force.
Stafford said multifamily housing is the only way to generate more affordable housing, and it doesn’t have to be everywhere.
Residents of the high-priced Governor’s Land neighborhood can choose to keep their housing density low and their housing prices high, she said. But when those people oppose multifamily housing outside their own community, “they want to not have the density without paying for it.”
James City County has height and density limitations that restrict the building of multifamily housing that can provide affordable starter homes for young working families. Its ordinance for attached apartment units don’t allow for a large enough structure that senior citizens could rent for additional income to help maintain their homes.
Home builders say the demands imposed upon them by localities, coupled with the long time it takes to get the requisite permits, dramatically increases the cost of homes because they might be carrying the cost of land for years before being able to start construction.
“We were jumping through hoops” trying to get final approval in James City County, said one builder who asked for anonymity.
The large lot sizes required in many county zoning districts also raises cost, this builder said, explaining the math:
A $1 million house on a five-acre lot would net a builder a profit of $100,000 to $150,000, this builder said. Ten lots on that same acreage would net the same margin with homes priced at far less.
“Density is the key to (affordability) and you’ve got to efficiently use the land more, (but) people just don’t want it,” he said.
Next week, we will review progress on recommendations made by the housing task forces, and what remains to be done.
Pilot survives plane crash in Lightfoot
A Williamsburg pilot escaped serious injury after crash-landing his single engine airplane in Lightfoot Monday afternoon.
State police said they were called to the crash landing of the single-engine Cessna 172 at 5:26 p.m. at 213 Lightfoot Rd. The airplane flipped over and landed upside down.
A Williamsburg airport employee said the aircraft was registered to a local pilot, whom state police said was the sole occupant.
The pilot was taken to the hospital to be checked out.
Fun & Games
Sept. 24. One Irish Rover Band at New Town Tunes, New Town. 5 p.m. – 8 p.m. Free
Sept. 25. Wonderland at Rhythms on the Riverwalk. 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Riverwalk Landing Yorktown. Free.
Sept. 26. Williamsburg Pancake Festival Day 1. Williamsburg Hellenic Center. 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. $20 Adult general admission with drink ticket, $15 adult non drinker.
Sept. 27. Williamsburg Pancake Festival Day 2. Duke of Gloucester Street Merchant’s Square. 10 a.m. – noon. Free.
Sept. 27. Yorktown Market Days. Riverwalk Landing. 8 a.m. – noon. Free
Sept. 28. Yorktown Art Stroll. Riverwalk Landing. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Passings
Emeline Wood Bailey, 103, Sept. 17.
Mary Frances Matthews, 98, Sept. 19.
Howard Franklin Sunden, 99, Sept. 13.
Arlane Joan (Hatton) Piner, 90, Sept. 15.
Harlene Elizabeth Menns, 68. Sept. 19.
Margaret Pearl Marchiano, 85, Sept. 21.